


Tell Me Another

by Carenejeans



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2004-10-22
Updated: 2004-10-22
Packaged: 2017-10-17 14:33:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 569
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/177871
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Carenejeans/pseuds/Carenejeans
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Note: This was written partly in answer to a post on the (defunct?) LJ comm <a href="http://www.livejournal.com/users/men_who_slash/">men_who_slash</a>, where fans were admonished not to write male characters giving each other flowers. I was of course immediately seized with the desire to do just that. *g*</p>
    </blockquote>





	Tell Me Another

**Author's Note:**

> Note: This was written partly in answer to a post on the (defunct?) LJ comm [men_who_slash](http://www.livejournal.com/users/men_who_slash/), where fans were admonished not to write male characters giving each other flowers. I was of course immediately seized with the desire to do just that. *g*

Xander looked down at the ragged mass of flowers Spike had thrust at him.

"What is this?"

"Secret message," Spike said, biting the words out. He turned on his heel and stalked away.

"Too bad I don't have my decoder ring," Xander called after him. Spike just shrugged without looking back, made a rude gesture and kept walking.

\---

"Secret message?" Willow examined the flowers. "This is a strange bouquet."

"It's not a bouquet," Xander said.

Willow held it in front of her, "it isn't?"

"No. Because Spike gave it to me, and if it's a bouquet, then Spike has given me a bouquet of flowers, which is -- unacceptable. Ergo, it's just a -- bunch. Of flowers."

"Okay," Willow said, somewhat dubiously. She laid the flowers on the library table and spread them out. "Aconite -- monkshood. That one's poisonous."

"Now there's a surprise."

"This green stuff is belvedere. Hm. Lichen... I see a pattern here."

"What, that Spike's been looting the front yards of Sunnydale?"

Willow smiled. "Well, yes, but, see, these are all plants associated with death. And, and hatred. They're very -- dark plants."

"A certain element of surprise is again lacking. So he gave me a bunch of flowers with the secret message, 'I hate you, drop dead'?"

"Yes, exactly! This bo--bunch is a message. In the language of flowers," Willow said.

"Flowers have a language?"

"It's an old, well, sort of old -- Victorian thing. Wait." She slid into her chair in front of her laptop and quickly clicked through screens, searching.

"Here, see?" A list of flowers appeared. "People would make up little bouquets and each flower had a meaning, so they'd be secret messages." She sighed. "It was all very romantic -- I mean, not romantic," she said hastily as Xander frowned. "It depends. On what you want to say."

"Okay, I get the message." Xander said. "But why would Spike go to the trouble?"

Willow picked up a deep red tulip, and frowned. "This one..."

"Blood, right? 'I hate you, I'll suck your blood, and _then_ you can drop dead'."

"Not -- " Willow hesitated, "--Exactly."

"What?"

"Well, red tulips usually, um, usually they _tend_ to mean, passion? But he couldn't have meant that, right? He must mean... blood..." she trailed off as Xander's face when white, then as red as the flower in her hand.

"Will," Xander said, slowly and with a forced casualness that made her wince. "Could you print that list for me?"

"Sure." To her surprise, he scooped up the flowers along with the print-out and headed towards the door.

"Where are you going?" Her face puckered up in worry.

Xander swung around. "To find a florist," he said. He raised the flowers in salute and left.

\-----

Xander laid his store-bought flowers on the table next to Spike's... message. The florist didn't seem to know the language of flowers, so she had cheerfully made up his -- he grimaced -- bouquet without guessing they held a message in return. A slim flowering almond branch, a lot of candytuft and China pinks. He nodded to himself in satisfaction. "In your dreams, bleach boy."

\-----

"Here." Xander thrust the flowers at Spike and kept walking, bunching his hands in his coat pockets.

Spike watched him walk away, and frowned at the flowers. Then a gleam came into his eyes. For there among Xander's message of indifference and aversion lay the single stray petal of a blood red tulip.

\--End--


End file.
